How to become a better Technician

[Aaron]

I’m a first year apprentice with nine months experience and I want more than anything to become the best Tech I can. I noticed in a few of Eric’s videos that he also felt the same way when working his way up. I though this would be a cool thread for older more experienced techs to give advice on what they did to become as good as they are.
Thanks!

Topic

[Roy French]

It is a cool thread! My advice would be to learn everything you are given the opportunity to. Take any class, even if you think you know the subject already. Save those certificates. If someone want’s to teach you to weld, learn it. Try to learn the subjects in as much detail as you can. If you know how and why something works, you can fix anything. If you can understand how and why something was assembled the way it was, you can repair it.
Equally important is a positive attitude, which you obviously have. You run into many people who will try to steal it. Avoid the negativity and you will be much happier.

[Bluesnut]

Just my 2 cents, but I think one of the biggest causes of problems between a customer and the shop/mechanic is lack of communication or a car owner who has no mechanical knowledge being unable to comprehend what they are told. This is especially true at a car dealer where you have service writers who often do not have much, if any, more mechanical savvy than the customer.

Before wading into any repair try to get as much detail on the symptoms as possible. One common complaint is “Car won’t start”. Well, what does that mean? Starter motor turns the engine over but it won’t fire up, won’t crank at all, won’t click, etc, etc.

Try to reason a repair through before replacing anything. What I’ve often done is eat a bit of free time if that’s what it took to avoid guessing. That may be a bit distasteful working on flat rate with no guarantee but could prevent problems later on.

Always cover your bases with notes. A number of customers will have one repair done and blame everything currently wrong or that will go wrong in 2 years on the repair you just completed.
In theory, service managers and writers should head this kind of thing off before it ever gets to you but a lot of times that does not happen.

[Aaron]

cool ideas, yeah i was actually thinking of taking a few night courses to improve on things I know little about. As for the negativity part, I know much about that. I work in a 2 bay shop with a 30 year “seasoned” Tech. He try’s all day to get under my skin but he never does 😉

[steven jacobsen]

All great advice. Like already said, learn everything you can, take notes. I have a notebook back from when I started and still go back to it occasionally because you can’t remember everything. I had small notebooks for the quick things to write down then a bigger binder at home to make a full description nice and neat, even organized with letter tabs for easy recall.
As said before, avoid the old (and some young) people that are not happy and try and take everyone else down with them.
Any information you learn can be expanded on, one guy might have a great tip on a subject and another guy has another tip, combine the tips together in your notes.
I have a tip on electrical diagnosis, saved me a ton of time, if you are chasing a wire in a bundle of 100 wires dont get overwhelmed, there are only 2 wires in that bundle you are looking for, ignore 98 of those wires. Simple thought but I have seen people open a bundle and go glass eyed when they handle all those wires.

[chris shearer]

i found asking questions is the best way to learn not just about the job but the people you are working with. if you ask some of the more experianced techs for advice you will probably find that most are happy to advise and help you and some are not and 9 times out of 10 the guys not willing to give out advice are not worth taking it from anyway lol.

[Author]

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